wildfire evacuation

Silent partner in project to transform Sonoma Developmental Center

Phil Barber, PRESS DEMOCRAT

In September 2005, a Stockton-based developer known as the Grupe Company paid nearly $500,000 to Riverbank, a town in Stanislaus County with about 20,000 people at the time. The money would allow the city to update its general plan. One public policy professor said at the time that he’d never heard of a private business funding a general plan, which serves as a blueprint for growth and land use.

The final study proposed three alternatives for Riverbank, all of which carved out specific benefits for the Grupe Company. After an outcry by residents, the Riverbank City Council approved a plan that would slash proposed Grupe development by half. Months later, the developer announced it was no longer interested in paying for the update.

It was a “valuable lesson in developer tactics,” as a Modesto Bee editorial put it at the time, that would seem to have nothing to do with the North Bay.

But the Grupe Company is on the verge of becoming an important player here, too. It makes up half of Eldridge Renewal LLC, the partnership selected by the state to redevelop the historic Sonoma Developmental Center campus at the western edge of Sonoma Valley.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/11/29/sonoma-developmental-center-grupe-company/

Habitats, Land Use, , , , ,

Public meeting on revised Sonoma Developmental Center plan set for Sept. 25

Phil Barber, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Local residents have had a number of opportunities over the past three years to weigh in on evolving plans to transform the historic Sonoma Developmental Center property near Glen Ellen with a mix of housing and commercial space.

They’ll have another shot next week as the county embarks on its latest attempt to shore up an environmental study that can pass muster in court, if not with project critics.

On Sept. 25, at Altamira Middle School in Sonoma, the county will host a public scoping meeting with its contracted planning firm, Oakland-based Dyett and Bhatia.

The meeting comes as many residents continue to call on the county for a scaled-down project, following a Sonoma County judge’s harsh rebuke of the original environmental impact report Dyett and Bhatia prepared for the site.

That ruling assessed the most recent plan for the 180-acre core campus, submitted in August 2023 by developer Eldridge Renewal, a partnership between Napa-based builder Keith Rogal and Stockton-based Grupe Company. It calls for 990 residential units in a diverse range of sizes and styles, plus 130,000 square feet of commercial space, a 150-room hotel, a community center, gym, new fire station and about 70 acres of outdoor common area.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/09/16/sonoma-developmental-center-plan-eir/?utm_email=5403F4019552E5C374DF9582D9&lctg=5403F4019552E5C374DF9582D9

Land Use, Wildlife, , ,

Sonoma County emergency preparedness falls short, grand jury says, warning of ‘chaotic, life-threatening’ evacuations

Emma Murphy, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The report comes weeks after local fire officials warned the region is likely to experience a long peak fire season.

Despite years of work and extensive investments to bolster its disaster planning and response, Sonoma County remains ill-prepared for emergency evacuations in the event of another regional firestorm, flood or other major disaster, the county’s civil grand jury has concluded in a new report.

The stinging assessment comes even after the strides the county, local cities and grassroots groups have taken after the 2017 firestorm and subsequent disasters to improve planning for the type of large emergencies that can displace thousands of people at a time.

The tools and protocols now in place, the grand jury found, function only as a foundation for evacuation plans — and those plans, covering much of the region, lack the detailed, proactive steps to ensure they can work, especially along the county’s sprawling rural road network, the new report says.

The panel faulted the county for its lack of modern modeling technology to evaluate evacuation routes and plan around known traffic choke points. The county also depends too heavily on cellphone networks and the internet to communicate alerts — an unreliable method for rural residents, according to the 20-page report.

“Without accelerated investment in planning, communications, and road improvements — and full compliance with California’s legal standards — the risk of chaotic, life-threatening evacuations remains high,” the report states.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/sonoma-county-grand-jury-emergency-evacuations/

Climate Change & Energy, Transportation, , ,

Hanna Center abandons large housing, hotel project next to its Sonoma Valley campus

Daniel Johnson, SONOMA INDEX-TRIBUNE

• Hanna Center has canceled its 60-acre development plan to focus on strengthening mental health and community programs.

• New initiatives include a community mental health center and expanded residential services for youth.

• Hanna Center aims to enhance collaboration and sustainability while serving Sonoma Valley effectively.

Hanna Center officials have confirmed they are dropping ambitious housing and commercial development plans on a 60-acre property next to their sprawling campus in Sonoma Valley, where neighbors’ concerns about the project’s scale and issues such as wildfire evacuation clouded its future.

It was one of the largest proposed developments in Sonoma Valley, calling for more than 600 homes in various types of housing as well as a hotel, retail and office development and open space off Agua Caliente Road next to the 76-year-old center, a residential campus for at-risk youth that also provides some services for adults.

Concerned neighbors said it would overtax water and sewage systems and worsen traffic congestion, which could be particularly problematic in the event of a wildfire.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/hanna-center-60-acre-development-sonoma/

Land Use, Transportation, ,

How Santa Rosa-based app Watch Duty became an indispensable tool during Los Angeles’ wildfires

Martin Espinoza, PRESS DEMOCRAT

It combines updates from authorities, some gleaned from their own internal dispatches, with fire maps, photos, live video from fire lookout cameras, notices of evacuation orders and weather warnings, road and school closures.

On a mid-August afternoon three and a half years ago, a handful of volunteers monitoring emergency radio traffic about a wildfire start in Lake County sent out their first coordinated public safety alert through a startup cellphone app.

That first message on Watch Duty reached about 6,000 enrolled users in the original three-county territory, including Sonoma, Napa and Mendocino counties.

Today, Watch Duty, based in Santa Rosa and powered by a network of wildfire monitors that stretches across the globe, covers 1,476 counties in 22 U.S. states.

It has about 16 million active users, more than half of whom have downloaded the app since the start of the devastating wildfires a week ago in Los Angeles.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/watch-duty-la-fires-alerts-sonoma-santa-rosa/

Climate Change & Energy, Forests, Land Use, ,

‘Toothless, vague, limited to hopeful intentions’: Judge upends Sonoma Developmental Center plans

Phil Barber, PRESS DEMOCRAT

A judge delivered a stunning setback to Sonoma County planners Friday, upending the approval of plans for the redevelopment of Sonoma Developmental Center.

It’s a decision that could stall, at least temporarily, a proposal to turn the 133-year-old campus into a residential and commercial community.

Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Bradford DeMeo, weighing a lawsuit filed by a coalition of Sonoma Valley citizens groups, ruled the county violated the California Environmental Quality Act by failing to clearly define the number of housing units allowed; address the cumulative impacts of a pending project at neighboring Hanna Center; respond to community concerns in the draft environmental impact report; and adequately gauge impacts on biological resources and wildfire evacuation.

Glen Ellen residents have been voicing those concerns loudly and frequently for several years. However, they have found little traction in convincing the county or the California Department of General Services, which is overseeing the sale of the state-owned site, which at 945 acres is one of the largest redevelopment projects in Sonoma County.

DeMeo’s ruling now resets the conversation and gives hope to community members who have been advocating for a scaled-down project at SDC, rather than the 1,000-housing-unit plan put forth by developers Keith Rogal and the Grupe Company.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/sonoma-developmental-center-judge-overturns/

Land Use, ,

Op-Ed: California’s problems won’t be solved by building in wild areas

THE WASHINGTON POST

The Feb. 10 news article “Gentrification by fire” raised valid points but did not address some important issues on building housing in California’s wildland-urban interface.

California’s policies concerning development in the wildland-urban interface are incoherent. The Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, whose members are appointed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), has issued minimum fire-safe regulations. For more than 30 years, the rules have required roads accessing new development to be wide enough so that incoming firefighting apparatus and fleeing civilians can pass each other concurrently. New development on dead-end roads more than a mile long is forbidden. In the past two years, the board was heavily lobbied by counties (including Sonoma County) and developers opposing road limitations for building in the wildland-urban interface, and the board proposed to eviscerate the regulations to allow commercial and residential development in fire-prone areas without safe evacuation routes. This approach failed when a group of retired firefighters lambasted the board’s willingness to jeopardize the safety of firefighters and the public.

Sound regulations remain in place, but the state does not enforce them, letting local jurisdictions ignore many of their protections. California’s housing crisis will not be solved by building in fire-prone rural areas; rather housing needs should be addressed by building as infill near transit hubs and safe evacuation routes.

Deborah A. Eppstein, Santa Rosa, Calif.

The writer is founding director of the State Alliance for Firesafe Road Regulations.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/15/california-building-wild-areas-fire-danger/

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